The social contract between our government and its people is hanging
on by a thread. If the 2018 Farm Bill is any indication of the strength of that
last thread, we are in trouble.
With its origins in the New
Deal, the Farm Bill’s original three goals were to keep food prices fair for
both farmers and consumers, ensure an adequate food supply and protect and
sustain the country’s natural resources.
The current iteration seeks to
dramatically increase food insecurity by weakening SNAP, a proven nutritional
lifeline, harming working families and slashing support for small scale and
sustainable farmers. We are a far cry now from its original intent to link the
survival and viability of farming and rural life with the reduction of hunger
and food insecurity in the cities.
How the farm bill is currently
shaped – who has the most influence on the policymakers – exposes a crisis of
democracy.
Let’s look at the numbers. Even
as unemployment has decreased to a remarkably low 3.8 percent, the percentage
of households that face food insecurity has stayed at around 12 percent over
the past three decades. Additionally, today fewer than 2 percent of Americans
are farmers and only 34 House districts (out 435) are rural. Meanwhile,
agriculture is the second largest contributor to human-made greenhouse gas
emissions and is a leading cause of deforestation, water and air pollution and
biodiversity loss.
Why does this matter? The Farm
Bill no longer sits on a three-legged stool of just economic, nutrition and
environmental policies. Instead it props up false solutions to hunger by
supporting the overproduction of commodities and intensive pesticide use while
causing climate change and illustrating the insidious reach of corporate
influence on our policymakers.
There are no long-term positive
effects to the increased consolidation and commodification of food and
agriculture. The rich get richer, while the environment, soil, vulnerable
populations and consumers suffer. And tweaking the system to mitigate the ill
effects of consolidated agriculture with technological fixes is a false
solution. A system that exists to make money first and turn profit above all
else, will never benefit the people or the planet.
It’s time for the Farm Bill to
reintegrate the bi-partisan goals it once had—of economic stability,
environmental protection and food security. We cannot end hunger and protect
the environment without dismantling corporate influence on the Farm Bill. And
it will take new, bold coalitions and alliances from the economic, racial,
social and environmental justice sectors to disentangle the bill from these
corporate interests and put it back in the hands of citizens.
Perhaps easier said than done.
But we are up for the fight. We must not forget the real people and communities
who stand to lose the most as the social contract continues to fray.
Alison Cohen is the senior
director of programs at WhyHunger, providing support to grassroots
organizations in the U.S. and social movements globally who are working toward
addressing the root causes of hunger and the deep inequities of poverty at the
intersection of agriculture and food systems, racism, health and climate change.
She has worked with grassroots-led organizations in rural and urban farming
communities for 25 years.
TAGS AGRICULTURE FOOD POLITICS
HUNGER POVERTY SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEM 2018 FARM BILL AMERICAN FARMING
1029 Vermont
Avenue, NW, Suite 601
Washington, DC
20005
Office: (202)
628-8833
Fax No.: (202)
393-1816
Email: latinofarmers@live.com
Twitter: @NLFRTA
Website: www.NLFRTA.org
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